George Wright (sportsman)

George Wright (sportsman)

George Wright (January 28, 1847 – August 21, 1937) was an American pioneer in the sport of baseball. He played shortstop for the original Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first fully professional team, when he was the game's best player. In 1868, Wright won the Clipper Medal for being the best shortstop in baseball. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937.

He was one of five men to play regularly for both the Cincinnati and the Boston Red Stockings, the latter winning six championships during his eight seasons to 1878. On April 22, 1876, he became the first batter in National League history, and grounded out to the shortstop. Elder brother Harry Wright managed both Red Stockings teams and made George his cornerstone; the brothers are now both in the Hall of Fame. George helped define the shortstop position and on-field teamwork, but his main work as a sporting developer came after retiring from baseball. After arriving in Boston he entered the sporting goods business, soon under the name Wright & Ditson's. There he continued in the industry, assisting in the development of golf, tennis, and hockey.

Born in Yonkers, New York, twelve years younger than Harry, George Wright was raised as a cricket "club pro", assisting their father as Harry had done. Before George's birth, Samuel Wright's St. George Cricket Club moved from Manhattan across the Hudson River to Elysian Fields, Hoboken, New Jersey, where many New York and New Jersey base ball clubs played in the 1850s. Both boys learned base ball, too, but George grew up with the "national game" and was barely in his teens when the American Civil War curtailed its boom; Harry was already twenty-two when the baseball fraternity convened for the first time, and thirty when the war ended.

Wright was the father of tennis great Beals Wright, a U.S. Championship winner and Olympic gold medalist, and Irving Wright, U.S. Championship men's doubles champion.